Hello, first time grower looking for advice/help!

UncleJimmy · Mar 31, 2025

Hello everyone, I'm Uncle Jimmy. Happy to be here - this looks like a very helpful community and I look forward to being a part of it.

I started my first grow about 4-5 weeks ago and I think I messed something(s) up pretty badly, although I'm not sure how. Details are as follows:

Strain: California Haze (Humboldt)

Germination/seedling phase
Medium: Root Riot cubes in a germination tray
Lighting: Small grow light from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/LORDEM-Spectrum-Brightness-Adjustable-Growing/dp/B0BDWMBS7L)
Watering/Feeding: 1-2x per week (depending on when the cubes dried out) with bottled drinking water (not PHed) and Clonex Clone & Seedling nutrient (3ml per bottle of water). I only used about a 1/4 of the bottle per watering.
Timing: I maintained this process for 4 weeks

During the last week of this phase, I noticed the lower leaves were starting to yellow. I thought maybe it was a nutrient deficiency, so I repotted and put under the grow light last week. Details so far:

Early Veg
Medium: Ocean Forest with 30% pearlite mixed in
Lighting: ACI Ionboard S33 (260W max) set at 40% and 18" above the plant
Watering/Feeding: I've only watered once so far with PHed RO water, no additives
Timing: the below pictures were taken after a about week of this (nearly 5 weeks old)

The bottom leaves have continued to yellow and the ends are turning brown. The plant also seems small for its age. I don't know what to do, please help! Thanks in advance!

UncleJimmy · Mar 31, 2025

After some research, I think this may be a magnesium deficiency. I'm going to add Cal-Mag next watering and report back.

LoveGrowingIt · Mar 31, 2025

UncleJimmy said:
After some research, I think this may be a magnesium deficiency. I'm going to add Cal-Mag next watering and report back.

It looks like it could be Mg deficiency. Epsom salt is good for adding Mg. (1 tbsp / gallon of water)

ohigrow · Mar 31, 2025

Looks incredibly small for 5 weeks. You kept it in the starter cube for the first 4 weeks? If so likely a root lock issue. Once the roots outgrow the space, the plant can’t continue to grow. It causes nutrient lockout and sometimes the roots can even strangle themselves. General rule of thumb is once the leaves reach the sides of the pot, it’s time to transplant, up until your desired final size. For size reference mine are 30 days in this picture(4 weeks 2 days old).

UncleJimmy · Mar 31, 2025

ohigrow said:
Looks incredibly small for 5 weeks. You kept it in the starter cube for the first 4 weeks? If so likely a root lock issue. Once the roots outgrow the space, the plant can’t continue to grow. It causes nutrient lockout and sometimes the roots can even strangle themselves. General rule of thumb is once the leaves reach the sides of the pot, it’s time to transplant, up until your desired final size. For size reference mine are 30 days in this picture(4 weeks 2 days old).

Wow, those look great. It is incredibly small. Wondering if I should just start over.

kika1kika · Mar 31, 2025

UncleJimmy said:
After some research, I think this may be a magnesium deficiency. I'm going to add Cal-Mag next watering and report back.

And it looks very dry. The cup should be wet from top to bottom I do Coco so to the feeding I can not say much,, but probably this soil should have enough nutes for the beginning. So try to give it a good watering with good Ph and give it a few days... Also I agree with @ohigrow but you can still safe them. Give them some space and proper moist ground and they will catch themselves in notime

HerbalEdu · Apr 1, 2025

unproper watering pratice is often the cause for stunted growth on start up.

like it's been said that soil on the photos looks bone dry

UncleJimmy · Apr 1, 2025

HerbalEdu said:
unproper watering pratice is often the cause for stunted growth on start up.

like it's been said that soil on the photos looks bone dry

Thank you. It is the end of my wet/dry watering cycle in the pic, but I went ahead and saturated the soil using PHed RO water and Cal-Mag last night, so hopefully that helps. Will post updates if she gets better and appreciate the help!

UncleJimmy · Apr 4, 2025

So it's been a few days since transplant, and now I'm seeing these little leaves at each of the nodes (pic below). Did I stress her into flowering early or is this normal?

JaBy · Apr 4, 2025

UncleJimmy said:
So it's been a few days since transplant, and now I'm seeing these little leaves at each of the nodes (pic below). Did I stress her into flowering early or is this normal?

View attachment 2407707

i'm not an expert but that appears to be normal growth.

UncleJimmy · Apr 4, 2025

JaBy said:
i'm not an expert but that appears to be normal growth.

Ok, that makes me feel better. 1st time growing so I'm not sure what to expect, and since these weren't there a couple of days ago I got worried. Everything I found online said those were the beginnings of flower, but maybe I wasn't searching correctly.

I was just admiring your buds in another thread. Nice work! Especially for some randoms you collected through the years.

JaBy · Apr 4, 2025

UncleJimmy said:
Ok, that makes me feel better. 1st time growing so I'm not sure what to expect, and since these weren't there a couple of days ago I got worried. Everything I found online said those were the beginnings of flower, but maybe I wasn't searching correctly.

I was just admiring your buds in another thread. Nice work! Especially for some randoms you collected through the years.

i would look for female calyx's and pistils (white hairs) forming for indications of flowering.

give em hell, you could surprise yourself when you see what you are able to grow........

JaBy · Apr 4, 2025

i didn't have a pic so i found this online showing the flower.

UncleJimmy · Apr 4, 2025

JaBy said:
i didn't have a pic so i found this online showing the flower.

View attachment 2407716

Thank you. I actually saw a few pics like that - I just wasn't sure if there was supposed to be anything at all at the node until flower, but if you're saying there is normally growth there even during veg, I'm less worried. Also looks like I'm going to need to get a microscope because my vision sucks and I can't see things that small XD

HerbalEdu · Apr 4, 2025

anyway 4 weeks in root cubes is hell long, should be transplanted much sooner than that if vigorous and healthy. as soon as few roots show on the border of the cube wich shouldn't take more than a few days usually.

now that it's in small cup with OF soil i don't think you should let dry the soil that much in small cup before watering again.

UncleJimmy · Apr 4, 2025

HerbalEdu said:
anyway 4 weeks in root cubes is hell long, should be transplanted much sooner than that if vigorous and healthy. as soon as few roots show on the border of the cube wich shouldn't take more than a few days usually.

now that it's in small cup with OF soil i don't think you should let dry the soil that much in small cup before watering again.

Makes sense. I was just following instructions from "Welcome to the Grow Tent" YouTube channel since I didn't really know what I was doing, and he recommended leaving them in the cube for 4 weeks. When I finally transplanted the cube, the tap root was a few inches long in the drain pan. WTTGT also recommended a couple of other things that burned me (and my girl), so I won't be listening to his advice anymore.

I'm still learning good watering practices as I get used to the weight and feel of soil (never really grown anything), but I think I'm getting the hang of it. She seems happy and healthy after this initial hiccup, and she's growing fast! In fact, she's almost outgrown the cup in a week, so may try to transplant to 1-gallon smart pot mid-next week. As always, thanks for the help :)

HerbalEdu · Apr 4, 2025

UncleJimmy said:
I'm still learning good watering practices as I get used to the weight and feel of soil (never really grown anything), but I think I'm getting the hang of it. She seems happy and healthy after this initial hiccup, and she's growing fast! In fact, she's almost outgrown the cup in a week, so may try to transplant to 1-gallon smart pot mid-next week. As always, thanks for the help :)

yeah if recovering and vigorous and healthy back again she may need a transplant rather soon, else she could be rootbound quick and start acting like a bonsaï with reduced growth rate and size due to constrained roots.

UncleJimmy · Apr 4, 2025

Considering she's suffered some stress early on, what do you think about taking clones from her once she's close to flowering? I don't know if they continue to carry that stress through cloning or not, or if it will affect yields. I still have a few seeds, so maybe it's better to clone the next one, presuming I do better...

HerbalEdu · Apr 4, 2025

As far as i know i think that's oki to clone.

I have seen stunted plants on start up being the most appealing of the batch in the end a few times.

fishmon · Apr 4, 2025

Using ro water in soil may not be the best idea. Recently came across some sciency reading about why it can be detrimental to nutrient uptake. I now use 50/50 ro/filtered tap. My tap ppm is 160. Cutting with ro gets it to 90. I found the ro has very little ph buffer capacity ie very little adjustment solution = large ph swing. Adding tap improves that issue nicely. Maybe research ro in soil or others here may be able to chime in on the subject.

Hello, first time grower looking for advice/help!

Hello, first time grower looking for advice/help!

UncleJimmy

UncleJimmy

LoveGrowingIt

ohigrow

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